Franklin OM build

[mhw48]

Originally Posted by 4mykey

Wow!!!!! Those inlays are stunning! Especially the end piece. That's going to be a truly beautiful and unique guitar. I think the headstock Nick did for me will add a nice elegant touch. Can't wait to see it!

I am quite happy about the inlays. The headstock binding that Nick did for your OM should work well with the Art Deco theme -- I think it is quite elegant!

[mhw48]

Speaking of inlays: Nick and I had an innumerable exchanges on the fingerboard inlays. I would send him a drawing, and he'd write back "Maybe...". We had settled on Art Deco as a theme, and I wanted something that would work with the rosette, and finally I came up with this:

The triangular windows and arches of the Chrysler building nicely echo the rosette.
The Chrysler building is Mammoth Ivory, the moon and stars are yellow pearl.

[soma5]

I have an old (1994) Franklin OM, Koa and probably Euro spruce, maybe Engelmann but it's a powerful, exuberant guitar. If I were ordering a new build, I'd specify a bigger fatter neck but I can't complain because the guitar is so good. I inspected the interior and I could tell that Nick had really thought about how tone is produced and had done experiments to verify his thinking. Small details all over the place that made this apparent to me. I got in touch with him and he was generous with information. If I were doing another build he would be at the top of my list.

[mhw48]

Originally Posted by soma5

I have an old (1994) Franklin OM, Koa and probably Euro spruce, maybe Engelmann but it's a powerful, exuberant guitar. If I were ordering a new build, I'd specify a bigger fatter neck but I can't complain because the guitar is so good. I inspected the interior and I could tell that Nick had really thought about how tone is produced and had done experiments to verify his thinking. Small details all over the place that made this apparent to me. I got in touch with him and he was generous with information. If I were doing another build he would be at the top of my list.

"Exuberant" is a great way to describe Nick's guitars! They really feel alive in your hands and eager to play! Nick is quite an amazing builder. As you say, constantly tinkering, experimenting. Each guitar he builds is something special.

[mhw48]

This is the drawing I made for the fingerboard inlays, showing how it will look with the rosette, headstock binding and a modified "Franklin" logo...

[mhw48]

I haven’t had much news to report,as Nick has been battling some pretty persistent headwinds with this build: After finally managing to get city approval for the rewiring of his new workshop in the basement of his house, Nick was happy to report he could finally start up again on my guitar.
BUT, then the weather changed as we got further into fall, and both the temperature and humidity in Nick’s basement shop started to fall to unacceptably low levels. His furnace, which is located in the middle of his workshop, doesn’t have any vents to the basement area. Nick’s house is humidified through the forced air ducts as well, so that also bypassed the basement.
Nick’s solution was to wall off a smaller room in the basement that he could heat and humidify adequately with small portable units. He planned to continue to work with the larger shop tools out in the cold, drier area for the brief moments he’d need to, and then bring the wood back into the smaller climate controlled space. So, another week and a half to two weeks had to be spent on carpentry rather that luthiery.

[mhw48]

When not building new walls Nick spent some time on the tuners we planned to use.

[mhw48]

More than a year ago — before Nick had begun my build — we’d had a couple of discussions about the tuners for this guitar. I wondered what would compliment the Art Deco theme of the inlays. Of course, when you think of tuners on Art Deco guitars what comes to mind are Grover Stair-step tuners...



I considered them for a hot minute; Nick didn't consider them at all.
"They're great for an archtop jazz guitar, but they wouldn't work at all with the size and shape of the headstock on my flattops..."

Nope.

So we decided on a set of Alessi tuners, "Type 3" style, as Mr. Alessi calls them, with ebony buttons.

They have a good reputation, and while not overtly Art Deco in design, I liked the look of the "pips" and the shape of the sleeves.

[mhw48]

I communicated with Mr Alessi, selected and ordered the tuners and had them shipped to Nick in Portland. When they arrived (this is about a year ago), Nick texted me to say that he was really impressed with the quality of the work on the tuners, and that they looked really nice, but... neither of us had realized that the Alessi tuner buttons were larger than the buttons on the Waverly tuners that Nick normally used


I didn't think too much about it -- so they're larger -- but Nick was worried that on the Franklin head stock they'd stick out too far and "it'll look like Alfred E. Neuman..."

[mhw48]

Nick made a mock-up of his headstock, which he put the Alessi tuners on, and he didn't like the way it looked. Next he made a mock-up of a slightly wider version of the headstock to see if that would look better.


Nick was finishing up an OM before he was to start work on mine, so he set the body up with the mock-up of the wider headstock attached to a discarded neck overlaid with an old fretted fingerboard


I thought it looked fine, but Nick wasn't convinced.
It was at this point that Nick had to move out of his old workshop, so the tuners went on the back burner.

[mhw48]

Over the months that Nick was moving and then renovating his workshop I'd check in on what was happening. Mostly Nick was occupied with construction work, but he kept thinking about the guitar, and fretting over the tuners. At some point he concluded that he just didn't like the slightly wider headstock -- his usual headstock size and shape really worked for him, and to his eye, even a minor adjustment just somehow threw it off.
"So, let's just go with Waverlys," I said. "I'm sure I can sell the Alessi tuners on AGF or on Reverb."
That seemed to conclude the tuner discussion, and we didn't talk about them again for months.
Then, recently, when Nick started up on the guitar body, I texted him and mentioned that at the moment StewMac was having a pretty big sale, so it would be a good time to purchase Waverly tuners.
He didn't get back to me right away, and when he did he told me that he had discovered that the Alessi tuners were very easy to disassemble, and that he was going to cut down the buttons on them.
Which he did...
He sent me a photo of the unaltered Alessi tuning machine, a Waverly machine and, in between, the Alessi with the button roughly cut down to a size slightly larger than the Waverly wooden buttons -- closer to the size of the butterbean buttons:


and then all six buttons cut down, sanded and polished:

[4mykey]

I think I like the middle set best for your guitar...a bit smaller but still elegant. Thinking the snakewood knobs might add a little more variation though. The black headstock with ebony knobs is pretty dark. Just my opinion. What's the ratio on the Alessi's? I had Nick install the high ratio Waverly's on mine and I love them. He said he even noticed a difference with them. Looking good!!??

[mhw48]

Originally Posted by 4mykey

I think I like the middle set best for your guitar...a bit smaller but still elegant. Thinking the snakewood knobs might add a little more variation though. The black headstock with ebony knobs is pretty dark. Just my opinion. What's the ratio on the Alessi's? I had Nick install the high ratio Waverly's on mine and I love them. He said he even noticed a difference with them. Looking good!!??

Thanks Mike. I agree the middle size works best! The Alessi tuners are 15:1 ratio; if we had gone with Waverlys, the high ratio would have been my choice.

[justonwo]

Looking great. This one is gonna be good.

[mhw48]

Originally Posted by justonwo

Looking great. This one is gonna be good.

Thanks Juston! I am impatient for it to be done and to get my hands on it, so I am trying to emulate your example of patience while waiting for your Circa Om-42!